Sac's Place

 Had a wonderful filling meal here recently with family, we all enjoyed the food tremendously as well as the service and ambiance.  I like the look of the place, the wooden tables appear to be made from the wine cases, very slick tables, great reminder of Italy.  The place is well staffed and friendly.  The vibe is relaxed, great neighborhood place.  It also smells good and is quite warm from the pizza ovens.

The meal started with fresh bread of the oven, great crisp bread with a dash of tomato.  I would have preferred Olive Oil instead of butter to dip, but we loved this as a start.  For an appetizer we shared the Fried Artichokes.  I was glad to see that they were not deep fried as it would have been too oily, although the version they served was not exactly light.  Very well seasoned tender strips of artichoke in oil, memorable dish, recommended for sure.  It was however a bit expansive and not a large portion for $12.  The pasta fagioli was decent, not memorable and under salted but not bad at all, the table enjoyed it.  The linguini inside the soup maintained some of its texture, it had not boiled to mush in the soup as sometimes happens.

For entrees we enjoyed them as much as the start of the meal.  The Fettuccini with shrimp and caramelized portabellas in alfredo sauce was excellent!  Likely the best alfredo I've ever had, it was not just a thick creamy sauce, there were subtle flavors in it, the shrimp itself had flavored the sauce too which was nice.  The caramelized portabellas were a perfect unexpected sweet component that helped to counter the rich cream sauce.  A well balanced meal with a great portion of about 7 large shrimps, great value.  The shrimp parmesan special with prosciutto was also good, the sauce was pungent and thick, enjoyed by all.  The last entrée we had was a red pepper fresh ravioli stuffed with I believe shrimp and lobster.  Another great dish, the ravioli was large and thin, well stuffed and delicious.  Memorable meal, great, simple Italian food.  I look forward to returning to try the pizza's, they looked amazing.

Ornella Trattoria Italiana

One of my favorite places to eat in Astoria!  Here are my two reviews.


2/14/2011
After a few more visits, Ornella has become one of my favorite restaurants in Astoria.  From he value, to the service, and most importantly the food, this place is fantastic.  Recently I had a wonderful dinner here on a Monday which is steak night.  The steak was amazing, well seasoned, a tender beautiful porterhouse, for $15!  I had the sheet of fresh pasta stuffed with a melange of chicken, pork, mushroom, cheese and various other things, served over a pink sauce.  Fantastic flavors, great rich filling entree.  Then the owner walked over with a new entree he is working on, knowing I enjoy funkier foods as well as the classics he offers me something I've never had, sheep.  This was a great cold sheep salad with vinegar over greens.  It was not as gamey or funky as I would expect sheep to be, this was clean and very nice, although not very lean.  I liked this very much, fun flavors, great match of heavier meat with fresh crisp lightly seasoned greens.

I've also been here for the Pork Night, which I have to say really excited me.  It was by complete surprise and i was thrilled with this dinner.  It started with Porketta over greens, a good cut of meat not featured often enough, love this start.  As with everything, this was a big starter.  The The best course was the pork tenderloin in red wine sauce.  One of my favorite cuts of meat, in a very rich sauce, rich and velvety.  Pork heaven.  The pork blood pudding was very good, the texture was strange but delicious.  Love the creativity and the fun that Ornella brings to the table.  The standards are excellent and huge, from the Parmesan to the steaks as mentioned.

They have excellent wine by the glass, or half carafe as it seems they serve.  Great value again.  The owner cares about the food he serves, its something different than you can get pretty much anywhere.  Quite a few dishes i've never seen and are I hear from various little towns in Italy, as well as wonderful house creations.  This is one of the places i recommend most to people in NYC, or looking an amazing meal at Queens prices.  Half a block from the train, this place is highly recommended!


10/17/2010
Really interesting well made Italian food.  Very nice relaxing place, very friendly service.  They serve some traditional Italian dishes (parmigiana) and many smaller dishes you can only find in certain towns in Italy.  They do not limit the food to region either, its diverse Italian food.  We started with a small carafe of Chianti for $15 which was about 1.5 glasses each, very nice price for dinner.  For an appetizer we had the Duck Meatballs in what I believe was a cognac sauce.  Really nice appetizer, like nothing I've had before.  They were large and stuffed with cheese, the sauce was very sweet but i thought it went very well with the meatball.  For my entree i had the Chestnut fresh pasta with pistachio cream sauce.  Fantastic dish, a bit heavy, but that's what i expected.  Very rich creamy sauce, lots of flavor, highly recommended.  The veal parmigiana was very good, standard.  For desert we the lemon cake and the eggplant cake are both good choices, not very sweet, but a good refreshing end to the meal.  Excellent flavors and service, I'll be back here for sure.  Looking forward to trying other things on the menu I've never had before.

Piccola Venezia Restaurant

Excellent northern Italian food, my favorite Italian place in Astoria.  Someone at my table said, in an affectionate way "They have not changed the menu in 25 years".  The meal was just like i expected it to be, fresh food, great service, expensive, busy for a Tuesday night.  When we walked in they had about 5 cooked dished to view which was a nice touch, and did influence our choice in entree.  The roast veal looked amazing, although we did not end up ordering it.  Nice decor, simple and effective.  A warm place.  I've eaten here many times, this review is based on the first experience there.

The meal started with warm bread, always a plus.  Butter, which being northern Italian cuisine I guess i should have expected that , but i was hoping for olive oil.  We were also given a complementary plate of small pieces on cheese, a cured meat and some olives.  Nice touch, good starters.

For appetizers i had the Fussi alla Grappa (bowtie shaped pasta with mushrooms, grappa and parmigiana. This was alright.  The pasta (which i was informed is made fresh daily) was not great, it was not a bowtie at all and more like thin flat pasta rolled over itself, not a great texture.  The sauce was good, again not great. Very heavy on the garlic, which I love but it might turn some people off.   We also had the crab cocktail. That is an item I order ofter, this one was excellent.  Very large portion (which it should be for $16.50), large pieces of moderately sweat crab, lemon and cocktail sauce.  Standard but excellent.

For the entrees I had Salmon with a white wine, garlic, lemon type of sauce.  Huge portion of fresh salmon, nothing else on the plate but the salmon and its fantastic oily sauce.  They removed the skin and the gray part which I appreciate.  Strange presentation for sure.  The side plate had spinach (excellent, sauteed, standard ) and potatoes gratin (on the cold side but full of flavor).  Both were excellent, but it would have been nice to have it on the plate with the salmon, so the sauce would flavor both.  Overall this was an excellent dish i would order again, the salmon was bursting with flavor.  My table also ordered the Arrosto d'Anatra (Roasted LI duck in Gran Marnier Sauce), which is another dish we have shared many times in other restaurants.  The sauce was fantastic, not the usual orange sauce i'm used to, it was thicker and richer.  The duck however was on the small side.  I love a crispy Long Island duck, but they can run on the small side. Once you have had a very large 1/2 duck with the fat between the skin and meat trimmed off by say La Primavera on Long Island, its hard to enjoy this duck.  Aside from on the small side, it was way to fatty.  Still the taste of the meat and the sauce was excellent.  While not every dish was totally satisfying, the food overall was very good.  Quite expensive, but worth it for the right occasion.

After multiple visits it keeps getting better and better.  The Buccoloni is amazing and very unique, fresh sheets of pasta wrapped around Osso Bucco in a light tomato cream sauce i believe.  One of my favorite dishes in all of Astoria.  Order it for an appetizer, then get fish for your main.  The Oysters are always excellent, so you could also start with those then finish with the buccoloni.  Almost everything I've had here is great and the service is attentive and friendly.  Every time I go here its packed, every single time.  Its worth a wait.  Highly recommended.

Trattoria L'inco

I've lived in Italy for a few month and i tend to have high standards when it comes to Italian food.  This place was kinda hit or miss for me, and it was expensive, thu not to bad.  Huge place, really impressive size and the fact that we had to wait 10 minutes for a table on a Wednesday certainly speaks highly of the food.  The waiter spent literally 5 minutes reciting the specials from memory.  There must have been 40 different specials, and i'm not exaggerating!  It was really impressive, if not somewhat frustrating to not have them listed in front of us.  The meal started with good bread, a flat bread and a tomato spread, very tasty.

The food was decent to very good, thu I don't think anything was excellent.  There were 5 people at the table and I got to try a bite of everyone's meal, one benefit of eating with family :) ...

The pizza was not hot and not impressive, neither the sauce, cheese or bread were that good.  We had 2 ravioli dishes to start, both very small and good thu not great.  One had apple, cheese and nuts, good flavors.  The meat ravioli with a nut sauce was also good.  Both were to small.

For the main dish i had the bronzini which was fishy.  Everyone at the table who had a bite said it was to fishy.  Kinda sad to get not so fresh fish at a place that serves 2-300 people a night, very unexpected.  The flavors for the fish were ok, it was ginger and gran marnier, although i did not taste the ginger.  We had the pork chop in a red wine sauce that was a big disappointment.  Not much sauce, and it was not really that tasty.  The pork itself was hardly seasoned at all.

One thing that was excellent was the hazelnut gelato, the best i've had since Italy!  Really excellent stuff!

Overall i walked into this place with high expectations and was slightly disappointed.  Not sure i will return.

Ristorante Ponticello

I had a very nice meal here, but it was very expensive.  The food was very good although nothing was excellent.  I ate here on a Wednesday night with 3 family members, the place was busy.  Nice looking restaurant, very high ceilings, mirrors all around.

The meal started with cold bread and butter.  Kinda strange not to be offered olive oil.  I don't think i had butter once in the 3 months I lived in Italy, to be fair this was northern Italian and i lived in southern Italy, so for all i know this is typical, although I doubt it.  I ordered the Stuffed Avocado with Crab, it was good.  Crab was good quality canned crab, on a 1/2 avocado with some onions, red peper and lemon.

Others at the table ordered the Lobster Ravioli, which was a very small portion even some a heavy dish, there were only 3 ravioli's.  My fiance had the Eggplant Rolatini, which she liked very much, but it was not actually rolled it was more like eggplant parm.  The table also had the Pasta Vongolette, it was very good, huge portion of small New Zealand clams.

For the main course i had the Stripped Bass with a light tomato and Onion sauce and polenta.  This would have been great if the fish was better, it was not as fresh as i would have liked.  Good but not great dish.  The polenta was a huge disappointment, because i was expecting the traditional version, and instead it was more like polenta cakes, still good but not the best way to enjoy polenta in my opinion.  My father had the Chicken and Filet Minion combination, you would have thought he died and went to heaven.  He loved the meat, very nice size piece of filet with surprisingly a marsala sauce that worked real well.  The chicken turned out to be fransais, well done.  The Swiss Chard potatoes were very good and something i've never seen before.

4 people had apps, entrees, desert and a drink each and the bill came to a little over $200.  The service was  very good and they were very accommodating turning entrees into apps and vice versa.  I would not go out of my way for this place, but if your in the area its worth a visit.